


A Slight Case of Overbombing

by Viridian5



Series: Dark Angel [5]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1998-12-05
Updated: 1998-12-05
Packaged: 2017-10-02 07:56:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viridian5/pseuds/Viridian5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How ruthless do you have to be to get the job done?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Slight Case of Overbombing

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for "Tunguska" and "Terma," with tiny ones for "The Blessing Way," "Paper Clip," and "Demons." All titles and lyrics come from albums and songs by the Sisters of Mercy except for "Life feeds on life, feeds on life" in 2. UNDER THE GUN, which is from Tool's "Disgustipated".
> 
> Thanks to Te for encouragement and initial content-beta from conception through three read-throughs. She was the one who asked if I could call Alex "Daffy".... Thanks to Feklar for righteous beta and the occasional sentence-grooming.

_"Everything is what it seems if  
You look deep enough tonight and  
See..."_  
  -- "On the Wire"

_"You do it because you were trained to do it, and you were  
encouraged to do it, and ultimately, you know, you... get  
to like it."_  
  -- Martin Blank, on killing, for _Grosse Pointe Blank_

1\. ON THE WIRE  
_"On the wire  
I will not fall"_  
\--------------------------------------  
Honesdale, PA  
April 15, 1997  
7:35 p.m.

"Don't do it, Mulder. These are not nice people," Nikki said. She grinned as she wondered how he'd react if he knew she was calling him from a block away.

"Who the hell is this?"

"I've been sending you warnings via e-mail for days now. I know you ditched your partner and are preparing to go on site. I'm begging you to go home. Leave this to more ruthless people."

"I can't do that," Mulder said, then hung up.

Some things never changed. Events were moving along as she'd expected them to.

Damn it. //He never learns, but neither do I...//

Then she saw a familiar person sitting in a parked car nearby. She wasn't surprised to see someone else tailing Mulder; she just hadn't expected Alex Krycek.

//But maybe I can take advantage of this too...//

***************************************************************  
_"Happiness is a loaded weapon, and a  
Shortcut is better by far"_  
  -- "Under the Gun"  
\-----------------------------------------------------

When he'd worked for the Group, he'd tailed Mulder. When he'd worked for the Russians, he'd tailed Mulder. Right now he worked for himself, and he still tailed Mulder. //I am doing something seriously wrong with my life. Well, yeah, there's the thing with the arm, but that was one stupid mistake, not a pattern. Even when I'm not tailing Mulder, I'm on one of his clones. I know people far worse than me who deserve this far more.//

Alex was getting sick of that face. Sure, it was an attractive face, especially considering it had a mouth that forced you to wonder at its talents //I wonder if he's as good as the two clones I had//, but Alex got tired of seeing it all the time. Enough already. Boredom had set in, big time.

Then he saw the woman walking over and cocked his gun. She didn't look like the usual professional, but she didn't look like a local either. If anything, her appearance suggested an operative spliced with a Hell's Angel. The combat boots and black combat- style pants with all the pockets said she was a player or a poser. The black leather jacket, studded leather collar with a ring for a leash, and metal tubing wraparound glasses with blacked-out lenses suggested motorcycle mama. Her copper hair was about as long as his, which wasn't very. Despite all the mixed signals, a note of danger rang loud and clear.

The way she moved decided him. If she wasn't right now, she had been an assassin in the past.

She walked with her hands open and away from her body, deliberately so, but he kept his gun ready. He rolled down the window when she stopped next to the car. It took him a moment, because he'd first tried to do it with a left arm that no longer existed. Dangerous. Most of the time he remembered, but, after five months, he still hadn't gotten used to it, hadn't completely broken the habits formed over the years prior to those months. If he wanted to keep living, he'd better.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked. Her voice had a raw silk roughness under it. The studded collar hung loosely around her neck, its ring dangling as she leaned forward.

//What the fuck would you know?// "Excuse me?"

"Shouldn't you still be helping your superiors conduct experiments on prisoners?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Of course not. I just gave Mulder a call. How about I give him another one to let him know his old buddy Krycek is waiting downstairs?"

//My day just took a turn for the interesting. By all means, keep telling me what you know...// "That won't be necessary."

"You're here for the same thing I am. I know you haven't kissed and made up with the old bastards here, so you either want to know more you can give to the Russians to improve their version, or you have some odd, personal plans."

"Get in the car."

Her lips moved into something that could be a smile or a snarl. "Put the gun up on the dashboard as I go to the other side. You don't want to find out how fast I can move."

Alex smiled sweetly and put the gun up. "Do I scare you?" he asked once she got into the passenger seat.

She carefully set a big backpack at her feet. "I believe in knowing exactly where my friends' hands are at all times. It's easier in your case, with you having only one."

"Looking at you, I have to ask: did you get lost on the way to Sturges?"

"Yeah, I took a wrong turn at Albuquerque, Daffy. I'm going to be nice to you, and put my cards down. I'm here to destroy every vial of Mercy they have stored in that prison. What about you?"

//Hell, why not? She puts a few minor cards on display, and I do the same; it's how the game is played....// "Same, actually, Rabbit."

"No deals for your foreign friends?"

"If you _must_ know, they're too smart to think their version should continue to exist. With the so-called 'fall of Communism,' things are too unstable to trust that kind of destructive power to a group of people that could change daily. Our Group friends were smart enough to feel the same way about trusting anyone with Mercy. For awhile."

"Agent Mulder got a tip from one of his high-placed contacts. He knows they have ulterior motives, but he doesn't seem to give a damn. Stubborn bastard."

"Stupid bastard."

"He's your way in, isn't he? You figured he'd rush in, all righteous indignation, and get his ass kicked. Then he'd get taken in for a mind wipe, since Mercy is too important and huge a thing to leave lying around in his memory. When the poor saps brought him in, you'd take the opportunity to slip by."

"And how were you going to do it?"

"I have another, harder way in. I don't think staking him out in front of the dragon's den should be the first and only option."

"How noble of you. So you called him to warn him off, hoping he'd be smart enough to go away, but knowing that your warning would probably just goad him further. Good job. So how are we any different, then, aside from the fact that I admit to what I'm doing while you pretend you have some kind of nobility? You're a hypocrite."

"No hard feelings about your arm, then?"

//Immediate topic change to something inflammatory. I must have hit a sore spot. You're not as clever or opaque as you think you are.// "Mulder didn't do that."

"No other reasons for not getting that revenge on him you so richly deserve?"

"If you know something--"

"Me? Nah. I'm retired. I only dabble when the situation calls for it."

//Like hell. There's only one way people like us retire. I know you, don't I?// "Then 'dabble' elsewhere."

"Do you have a backup hiding somewhere, Daffy? I don't think so. It's just one, one-armed man against a whole prison full of people with guns. Skilled people, because what they're guarding is too important and too dangerous to be looked after by amateurs."

//And here's the pitch.// "If you're suggesting something, I want to hear it, Rabbit."

"If I walk out of this car and away from you, you know I'll still be going after what I want, only you won't know where I am or how I'll be doing it."

"The same works in reverse."

"Exactly. Or we could team up. You know where I am, I know where you are, and we watch one another's backs against the bad, bad guys. Two killers against the army instead of one."

//And he hits one out of the park. Let's make her work for it.// "You're not counting Mulder."

"One, I hope it doesn't come down to that. Two, I never trust a person with scruples during a firefight. Do you? C'mon, I know you're weighing the pros and cons right now, and I'm sure the pros are winning. Maybe you'll even find a way to manipulate me. That has to appeal to you."

//There it is. I use you, you use me, we're a happy family? With both of us trying to get the better deal out of it and screw the other. Aw, hell, I complained about boredom.// "Then we have a deal. What's your name anyway?"

"You can call me 'Nikki.'"

"Only if you stop calling me 'Daffy.'"

"Like that's going to happen."

"Then I call you 'Bunny.'"

"If that little passive-aggressive gesture makes you feel better, than by all means do so." Her voice never once shifted out of a monotone. Either she didn't give a damn, or she came from the Fox Mulder school of emoting.

//Either way, I'm going to enjoy ripping the carpet out from under your feet once I can't use you anymore, bitch.// "Do you have a plan, Bunny?"

She smiled. "I always have a plan."

******************************************************************  
_"Teamwork is essential -- it allows you to blame someone else."_  
  -- a Mikey's Thought for the Day  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Waymart, PA  
11:15 p.m.

"Nice plan," Krycek whispered snidely as he watched Mulder meet his contacts. The night vision goggles gave everything a pretty, green cast. Right now the Group's thugs were still pretending to be the agent's friends. "We're going to be too cramped to do jack shit when we get there."

"Hey, you're not the one who's going to be folded up in the trunk." The lenses of her own night vision goggles provided the only touch of color on her beside black. Aside from her clothing, she wore leather gloves, a headset with earpiece, and a cap over her bright hair. Beneath the goggles, her eyes had been so thickly lined in black Krycek hadn't been able to make out their color when he'd briefly seen them. She'd even blackened her lips.

"Just on the floor in front of the back seat."

"Do you want to trade for the trunk? At least it's a Cadillac. We'd both be screaming uncle if the opposition had showed up in one of those tiny Japanese jobbers."

As a rule, Alex disliked and distrusted having a "partner." Most of them were wastes of space, and the rest were walking, talking health hazards. Partners thought for themselves and ruined your plans, shot the wrong woman, abandoned you in cars that were set to explode, and created their own escape plans, completely blowing your own to hell. You had to think around them and anticipate their actions. Alex knew that the only person he could really trust was himself.

He'd work with this bitch only as long as she was useful. Sniping with her passed the time and revealed the clues he needed to figure out how she'd jump in a situation. He could deal with her if she helped him get the mission done, and if she betrayed him or screwed up, he would kill her without a second thought.

She tested the sight on her tranq rifle again before saying, "I do appreciate a man who can fill out a suit nicely."

"I've been called worse things than 'decorative.'" Being able to pass for just another thug could come in handy. Nikki hadn't even bothered dressing to fit in, explaining that equal opportunity still hadn't been accepted by the Group. As a woman, she'd stand out no matter what she wore. He couldn't disagree.

"You're letting your hair grow out too. Good move. That militia buzzcut made me think of that old rhyme about Fuzzy Wuzzy."

"Tell me. I know you will anyway, you're dying to. I'm in a generous mood."

"Oh, y'know: Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear / Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair / Fuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?"

"Classic. The communal buzzcuts were part of the socialization rituals, like the keggers and gun parties."

"Yeah, but it looked like they did all three at the same time. And 'socialization'? Sounds like you hung out with Mulder a little too long."

"Don't I know it."

Mulder jerked suddenly, looked in dazed confusion at the three men surrounding him, and started to buckle into their arms. "Timber! We have betrayal," Nikki said. "Your link working?"

Alex took off the goggles. Once he reached the car, the vehicle's parking lights would blind him if he kept the night vision gear on. "It's your equipment. Yeah, it works. I'll let you know when to shoot them." Trench coat flying out a little behind him, Alex ran quietly through the woods and remembered, with a little fondness, days of training in Russia. He sailed over fallen logs, loose stones, old leaves, and dry twigs; he whipped around bushes without making a sound. "Now," he said. Preferring to blend in better, he used the equipment Secret Service men used: an unobtrusive implant in one ear and a hidden mike.

"Got it," she said in his ear.

First one man, then another, went down, taking Mulder with them. The man they'd figured to be the team leader pulled his gun and started to turn around. Alex pistol-whipped him hard to the back of the head, but not hard enough to kill. They only needed him to be out while they set up the car. He would drive them in.

Nikki ran up as quietly as Alex had. She crouched down beside the two men she'd taken out and removed the darts. "The eyes are open, but they can't move or speak. Everything is go." She picked one thug up and dragged him to the car.

She did the same with Mulder, more easily than Alex had expected. He said, "Maybe I should keep you around to do the heavy lifting. Doesn't it feel good to be useful, Bunny?"

She stuck her tongue out at him and went for the next man. "I'm not looking to become anyone's sidekick, Daffy."

Alex smirked. "I could pass you off as my devoted slave. Given the hobbies of some members of the Group, it might earn me points. You already wear a collar."

Nikki stopped arranging the man on the back seat and fingered the ring on the studded collar she wore. Alex wondered why she wore one too big for her; from the size, it looked like it was supposed to be a man's. "This is a red herring. I've always been a top." She went into the front to pop the trunk. "Do you want to take a look at the floor you'll be using?"

"Hell, why not?" Alex saw instantly that it would be tight squeeze, especially with him lying on the legs of the men sitting back there, but he could manage. He ruled his claustrophobia; it didn't rule him. Nikki had arranged the thugs and Mulder so the thugs looked awake with Mulder unconscious and sort of wedged between them. They all looked like they should. Alex grinned at the fear and anger glinting out of the thugs' open eyes. He blew them a kiss.

Muttering to herself all the while, Nikki emptied the trunk. When she removed the jack and spare tire, Alex couldn't help asking, "What if we get a flat along the way?" His smirk only deepened when she flipped him off.

Nikki got a small drill out of her backpack and started to make a few discreet holes in the lid and sides of the trunk before setting up her equipment. Alex went back to the headman and waited for him to come to. It didn't take long.

The man didn't look happy to see Alex Krycek looking down at him with a gun trained on his head. "What the hell do you want?"

"That's not polite at all. I only want a ride in. We may even let you live."

"A ride? Why didn't you say so?" He looked a bit nervous when Nikki, still wearing her goggles, walked up with her gun drawn as well. With her height and bulky leather jacket, she looked more intimidating than she should have.

"I'll be right behind you all the way, with a gun poking into your seat to make sure you behave. My partner will keep track of our route, making sure you take us the right way. All you have to do is drive and get us in," Alex said in his most equable and frightening tone. It was always easier to deal with this kind of person. Give them their lives or money and no opportunity to betray you, and they generally did their jobs. //Give me a player over an idealist any day.//

"That... won't be a problem."

"Good. Get in the car." They kept their guns trained on him as he got into the driver's seat. Nikki kept hers on the man when Alex carefully settled himself on the floor atop the two thugs' and Mulder's feet. Once Alex had his gun poking into the back of the seat, where the driver would be sure to feel it, he said, "I'm ready, Bunny."

He heard the trunk lid slam down, then, "Ready," in his ear.

"On, Jeeves. Drive," Alex said loudly to the man on the other end of the gun. The car started to move.

Alex fought down the feeling of being smothered by the tight fit. The hardness of his prosthesis under him quickly became painful, but Alex was accustomed to pain. The muttered curses he heard in his ear every time the car hit a bump entertained him greatly.

He had to admit, the strange bitch was useful. The layout she'd provided for the place had been more detailed than the one he had. If it turned out to be correct, he had to see if he could cultivate her source.

Alex thought about his self-appointed mission. The Group had converted a prison into a storehouse for the Mercy virus. The prison--complete with guard towers, high walls topped with barbed wire, the works--stood atop a high hill completely cleared of trees, with nothing but short grass around for acres. Alex imagined that you could see forever from the top of one of the towers. That mountaintop and complex, with the view around and drop right behind them, looked so damned 3-dimensional they popped at you. Drivers could see the prison from Route 6, a few miles away. That visibility made it hard for any unauthorized personnel to get in or out. Its cover as a prison also prevented the locals, few as they were in this sparsely populated country setting, from getting upset over a little, rare gunfire.

One vial of the Mercy virus could wipe out the state of Pennsylvania: human, alien, and human/alien hybrid alike. As far as backup plans went, Mercy could use some work. The idiots failed to see that if colonization went through, and the aliens failed to keep their side of the deal, no one would be able to release Mercy, much less launch the nuclear weapons necessary to effect the scorched earth policy--the big raspberry to the aliens-- the Group intended. However, Mercy could still be used *now*, and it belonged to some of the most ruthless people on the planet, people who had no checks on their power, no one to answer to, and hideaways throughout the globe... That didn't even count the possibility of an accidental outbreak.

Weapons, once made, demanded to be used.

//Alex Krycek, defender of the people. What do you think of that, Mulder?//

Mulder slept on close by. A little stray light from the dashboard showed his face in patches; it looked younger when he was unconscious. Innocent. Fox Mulder, who somehow found people who didn't want to be found, saw things no one was supposed to see, wandered into high-security installations, survived while all his informants died, escaped the horrific fates that others around him fell prey to. Fox Mulder, who had nine lives and was thought crazy by so many people.

//So why do I let you live?//

Sometimes Alex felt the temptation to kill him just because so many other people had failed or passed on the chance. Other times, Alex appreciated him for being the wrench thrown into the works, an agent of chaos, no matter how inadvertently.

//I let you live, because I can use you. For now. Because I want to....//

***************************************************************  
_"Abrasive wheels and molten metals  
It's a semi-automatic, get in the car..."_  
  -- "Under the Gun"

_"Now I've lost friends  
It's not my party,  
Never will be  
Feeling out-of-place..."_  
  -- "Watch"  
\---------------------------------------------------------

Nikki had most of her six-foot-long frame wedged into the depression a spare tire usually occupied. Even so, she was curled in fetal position with portions of her body bent in ways they never should have been. Her yoga exercises had helped, but they couldn't stop her from rapping her head at every other tight curve the car traveled.

She had poked video-recording equipment that looked like small fiber optic cables out the holes she'd drilled. Combined with her small monitor, they let her see the road and make sure their driver kept them on course. So far, he hadn't deviated.

Everything was going so well, she couldn't help worrying.

The car exhaust seeping into the trunk from the muffler stank, and its carbon monoxide threatened to put her to sleep. Nikki breathed slowly and shallowly and tried to ignore the occasional, painful jolt of the car hitting a hole. Part of her mind wandered to pass the time. //I just hope it's not the carbon monoxide at work.//

Thoughts of last night's dream, one of her recurring ones, returned to haunt her. Someone cut her, and she bled toxic, green blood, killing everyone around her. She knew what fear it displayed--a basic lack of faith in her own humanity. Typical psychobabble for the outsider. The hints of truth in the fear made it impossible to fully shrug off, though.

She set it aside to ponder other things. Being partnered with Alex Krycek bothered her. Their sniping reminded her of the past, but he certainly was no Joseph Frank, no comrade she could trust with her life and soul. With nothing else to occupy her mind for now, she thought of Joe and remembered how they met... //We watched one another approach, hands on our weapons, like the predatory killers we were. After a moment of staring, Joe said, "They told me you were a reckless rookie who didn't play by the rules."

//I responded with, "They implied to me that you were a narrow- minded, fatherly type who had an iron rod up his ass. Put us together like that, and we sound more like an action movie cliche than partners."

//"You're young, but you don't strike me as a rookie."

//"I don't see a set-in-his-ways, stiff-necked codger."

//"Any ideas why they wanted us to hate one another on sight?"

//"I don't know. I thought they wanted us to actually _work_ on the X-Files."

//"Me too, unless they have another game in mind. You're assassination, aren't you? I can see it in your eyes sometimes."

//I was amazed. Right then, I looked more like somebody's administrative assistant in my business suit, pumps, and wire frame glasses. He was good. "Assassination, sabotage, intelligence, and counter-intelligence. Covert ops. Cold Warrior. You are too."

//"Yeah." He held out his hand. "I'm Special Agent Joseph Frank."

//I shook it. "I'm Special Agent Danielle Morley, for now. I hear the other two guys are terrors as well."

//He smiled. "Creatures of the night, beware."//

If she'd ever had to travel through hell, Joe Frank would have been the only person she would have trusted at her side. Of "the other two guys," Tim Davidson had been an asshole, but Karl Podeszwa, who had given her the collar as a gag gift, had been sweet, when he hadn't been out snapping necks. _Her_ X-Files team--Agents Frank, Podeszwa, and Davidson--had all died five years ago, killed by the Group to keep Fox Mulder cherry and in the dark. She had been slated for execution too and barely escaped. The termination order still stood.

Sometimes she resented the hell out of Mulder for it all. Yes, he had been poked and prodded onto the path the Group chose without being aware of it. He had been victimized too, but he constantly flouted the Group and still came out alive, which was more than her comrades could say. If they'd still been alive. Meanwhile, Mulder still didn't even know he had predecessors, let alone who they had been.

//You have enough self-pity yet? You chose to help him out, look after him. The executions were _their_ fault, not his. Blaming him just continues their agenda. And Joe was just a blip on the screen of your life, an aberration. You worked for years without any trusted allies.//

"Are we there yet?" Krycek asked in her ear. //Speaking of which....// She could only trust Alex Krycek to stab her in the back at the first opportunity. //And why am I wasting so much time going over Krycek's bad traits when I have a mission to focus on? Am I really that fucking lonely? Maybe I should get myself a pet when this is over. Fucking pathetic.//

"Get on your side of the seat and stop poking your little brother, son."

"What if he _wants_ to be poked?"

"That's disturbing on too many levels, Daffy."

"Well?"

"We should be making a right turn in a few minutes. If not, start threatening our driver."

They made the right turn when they should. She heard Krycek say, "Good boy," to their driver. One of the trickiest, nail-biting parts of the plan would be next. They had to get through the gate undetected.

//You're being weak and stupid with the little girl lost routine. Accept that you're alone in the world with no family or name to call your own, keep a blank face, and maybe you'll get out of this with everything intact. Otherwise, Krycek will walk all over you, then put you out of your misery with a nice, shiny bullet. Just do the job. Doing the job got you through hundreds of times before, and it'll get you through tonight.//

***************************************************************  
_"You can set the controls for the heart or the knees..."_  
  -- "Under the Gun"  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Just act natural and get us through. If we go down, you're getting gut-shot first," Krycek said to the driver, with an extra poke with the muzzle of his gun to underscore the point.

He could see the lights of the gate even from under the trench coat that covered him. If the guards looked through the window into the backseat they should only make out a confusion of cloth that could pass for pant legs and coat tails. Should.

If he were discovered, he would die first, but the guards would probably spray the closed trunk with a bit of semi-automatic gunfire too just to make sure. The thought made Alex feel a bit better.

The car stopped, and the driver rolled down the window. "We have Mulder, as per our orders," he said to the gate guards. Alex held his breath and stayed as still as he could while the flashlight beams crisscrossed through the back of the car.

"You're clear. Dr. Loehlin is waiting impatiently," one of the guards said. The car started to move again.

"Find a dark area and park," Alex said. They drove only five minutes longer before coming to a halt. Moving the coat from his head, he could see that the man had followed directions. "We're clear, Bunny."

The trunk lid flew up, and she vaulted out like an uncoiled spring. In moments she'd reached the driver's side window and pistol-whipped the driver into unconsciousness, all with clean, surgical precision. Alex dragged himself out of the car and neatened his clothing, stroking his coat down like a cat grooming its fur. Nikki retrieved her gear from the trunk and stuffed it all in her backpack.

Alex walked into the building like he belonged there, a ruse that usually worked wonders in projects run by the military. Nikki watched him leave, then leaned into the car to check Mulder out. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully. She brushed hair away from his face and felt tiny bumps at his hairline. Scabs. //You need a keeper, and I don't have the time....// She hated to leave him like this in an enemy compound, but the destructive potential of Mercy was more important. She did disarm the paralyzed men flanking him and give their guns to him. No reason to leave him defenseless. Then she dragged the Group men into an outbuilding one by one.

Nikki walked into the building, avoiding the video cameras and all employees. The Friendly Ghost had provided a stunningly accurate floor plan, even down to the positioning of the cameras.

Once again, Nikki had broken her promise not to use The Friendly Ghost's hacking skills, but the woman was just too damned good at what she did. Nikki still felt responsible for the hacker's well being--hell, she still couldn't help but think of Elena Kasperczyk as that eight-year-old she'd rescued from death behind the Iron Curtain almost 17 years ago--and saw Elena as a kind of little sister since she was only about six years older. Unfortunately, Ghost worked for others even when Nikki refused her help.

//At least you didn't have to risk putting her in danger to get you in. Stick with the things you can help.// Nikki stopped at the R&amp;D section for the Group's biological weaponry division and started to set up the bomb. Mercy could keep a few minutes longer.

***********************************************************  
_"Get ahead, go figure, go ahead and pull the trigger..."_  
  -- "Under the Gun"  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alex had to keep fighting down the smart-ass grin that wanted to float to his lips. Dressed like any other Group thug, he had walked through the facility unchallenged. He stopped at the door that should lead to Mercy and entered the codes into the computer lock. It opened with a faint buzz.

Two more code strings got him into the containment cabinets and access to twenty vials. They looked so innocuous, but they gave him the power to kill trillions. The feeling was heady and terrifying all at the same time. A part of him whose size and power he didn't wish to think of at the moment persisted in showing him images of mass destruction. Bodies upon bodies in the silent streets... He shook it off. They shouldn't be allowed to exist. Fortunately, the Group had been smart enough to have a means of destroying the virus--extreme heat--in the room it was stored in, just in case.

Alex carefully moved the vials to the other containment section with heating capabilities. He was just setting the temperature controls when he heard the door start to open. He had his gun in hand, ready to fire in an instant, but it was Nikki at the door, equally ready to shoot him. After a moment of mutual attempts at intimidation, they grinned and holstered their weapons.

"How's it going?" she asked.

"Almost done."

"No temptation to take them with you and sell them to the highest bidder."

Alex smiled. "None. It's too dangerous."

"Liar."

"Whatever," Alex said with a smirk. Nikki started to check all the cabinets, prompting him to ask, "Don't you trust me?"

"You have to ask?" But she didn't find any more vials.

They watched the machine cycle through the destruction of the virus canisters in an almost companionable silence. Then the alarms started to shriek. Not from the machine, but through the whole building.

"Can you think of a reason why those would go off?" Nikki asked.

"Mulder," they both said.

***************************************************************  
2\. UNDER THE GUN  
_"We're worlds apart where we could meet"_  
  -- "Under the Gun"

_"Watch us fall from grace;  
Watch us fall flat on our face...  
But you always fall on your feet.  
Tell me how you always  
Fall on your feet.  
Tell me how..."_  
  -- "Watch"  
\-------------------------------------------------------------

Mulder had ducked down behind a desk for cover as he exchanged fire with the Consortium thugs. He didn't know why he had been left, still armed, to wake up alone in the car, but he'd intended to take the best advantage of it he could. Then the alarms started...

//Okay, how the hell are you going to get out of this, let alone get a shot at Mercy? Good question, and I'm working on it....//

Then he heard more gunfire and screams. After a very short while, it was only the alarm wailing. Mulder peeked over the desk to see Alex Krycek and some biker chick stepping over the bodies.

//What the--// "Krycek, what the hell are you--" Mulder started.

"We have no fucking time!" Alex shouted. "Come with us!"

"I'm not going anywhere with--"

But the woman grabbed his arm in a vise grip and started to drag Mulder along. Gun in her other hand, she took the point while Krycek kept their backs covered. Mulder decided to keep his questions and protests to himself. For now.

Leaving a trail of bodies behind them, they ran from the building. "Open the back door, Daffy!" the woman yelled, and Krycek did. Mulder had only a second to wonder why Krycek was following her orders or letting her call him "Daffy" before she tossed Mulder into the back seat. Krycek followed and closed the door.

She took the driver's seat, flipped the high beams on, and threw the car into a fast reverse, running a few more thugs down, before she turned it around and put it into drive. They barreled through the gate at high speed, with Mulder expecting her to lose control at any second. Watching her shimmy out of her backpack as she drove, often holding the wheel with only one hand, didn't exactly increase his confidence.

"Don't worry, I used to drive getaway for some diamond thieves," she said. Mulder could see her eyes gleam with manic joy in the rear view mirror. "Reach into my pack and pull out the remote, Daffy. Our pursuers are about to get something more than us to worry about."

Krycek did as she asked and grinned as he pressed the button. The boom split the night as a huge section of the facility blew up. "You sure this isn't too bloodthirsty for you, Bunny?"

Her lips drew down into a tight line. "It was necessary."

"What? 'Life feeds on life, feeds on life'?"

//They just blew the place up! There go my answers, and--// "What the hell is going on?" Mulder asked as he struggled to remain upright in his seat.

"We just saved your ass and took care of the Mercy virus for you. No need to thank us," the Hell's Angel said.

"Thank you? I'm going to--"

She made an extreme right turn onto Route 191 at that moment at about 100 miles an hour, which effectively shut Mulder up. He and Krycek were too busy trying to stop their heads from ramming the doors, the back window, and one another. She let out a rebel yell as they flew over steep hills and around hairpin curves. Krycek grinned like a maniac, while Mulder tried to find his stomach. He figured he'd left it at the first hill.

Thirty minutes later, she stopped the car at Honesdale's main strip. "Is there anywhere I can drop you off, Daffy?" she asked. "I know we left your car--"

"It wasn't my car. Don't worry about me." He patted Mulder on the head and sauntered off, whistling a jaunty tune.

Mulder pulled his gun up and said, "Freeze, Kry--" but the woman knocked his weapon down. "What was that about?"

"Let him go this time," she said. "I'm sure you'll get another chance at him."

"Who the hell are you anyway? I didn't need your interference." Krycek faded into the distance until he disappeared completely, with Mulder's shot at him blown.

"I told you to leave this one to me. Sometimes the only way to take care of these bastards is through utter ruthlessness. You're gray now, but how black are you willing to go to get the job done? The stakes are getting higher, and these people don't have to kill you to destroy you."

"I know that."

"But do you realize how far they're willing to go? Just give it some thought, okay?" Then she drove away.

Watching his last "rescuer" go, Mulder realized that he would be leaving this little escapade the same way he left most of his cases, feeling confused and knowing not much more than when he started out. He didn't know how much more of that he could put up with.

He thought of the woman's parting words and the blithe swath of death and destruction she and Krycek had left behind them. Sure, it had gotten the job done, but there had to be a better way.

Didn't there?

### End

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** This is Dark Angel's original look for Nicole Desjardin. By ["A Tangled String of Blood and Entropy](http://archiveofourown.org/en/works/4227)," she has a very different style. Thus, Mulder never realized that he dealt with her on the Mercy virus.


End file.
